An Undetermined Path
by Shirafuzzy
Summary: Yusuke has drunk himself into oblivion. Would Kurama be able to make him go back to being himself?
1. Chapter 1

_So this is where he's been hiding,_ Kurama thought to himself as he looked up at the abandoned building. Half the roof was caved in; windows were broken and the ones that that weren't were black with soot and dust. The front door and windows were recently boarded up. The house would look magnicifent if the fact that it was old and left alone as such.

He stood there, on the street, until he could hear his snoring up on the second floor. Kurama walked around the back, and saw an easier way to get in other than jumping onto the hazardious-looking roof. He didn't want to wake him up just yet. He wanted to see how he had been living for the last few months.

Kurama climbed in through the window and looked around. The inside looked worse, if that was possible. Mold was growing freely in the walls, he could tell, and piles of beer cans showed that teens had also called this place home. Dust was everywhere, but a path of shuffling footsteps, recent, showed him where to go.

He made his way down the hallway and up the stairs, careful not to make any noises. Several of the stairs had collapsed from old age and bugs.

More footsteps, and an increasingly amount of beer cans led his way to where he was sleeping.

He was snoring, wrapped up in a blanket on the floor. Empty cartons of cigarettes, beer bottles, dust, and abandoned clothes covered the floor. It was pitch black in the room; these windows were still boarded up from the inside. Kurama walked over the window and tore off several of the boards. "Get up, Urameshi."

Yusuke groaned as the bright light hit him, and rolled over onto his stomach. Kurama went over to him and rudely pulled the blanket away from him. "I said get up."

"Go away, Red." Yusuke sat up, but his head was cowed because of a threatening headache.

"No. " Kurama brushed away some of the cans before he kneeled in front of Yusuke. "You can't live like this forever."

"I plan to. Now go away."

Kurama reached his hand out and placed it on Yusuke's cheek, turning the other until he faced him. "You aren't the only one affected by her death, Yusuke. It's been over a year --"

"Keiko... She was the only person that loved me for who I am...or who I was."

"So why don't you stop destroying yourself, go back tin to the teenage that you were, and find yourself someone new --"

Yusuke cut him off before he could say anything else. "She was the only one for me! Kuwabara has Yukina, you have Hiei...I have no one. I don't have a reason to be here!" He stood up and stormed off to look out the newly opened window, ignoring the headache that was forming.

Kurama's voice was soft and low. "Then why haven't you committed suicide yet?"

A long pause came from the raven haired teen before: "It's the coward's way out."

"And this isn't?"

* * *

It was the beginning of first grade. The students were paired off into groups of four. "Urameshi, you sit here, Kazuma, here, Yukimura here, and Kaoia here."

As soon as the teacher attention was focused on another student, Yusuke snarled, "Girl's are buttheads," pissed he had been paired with two girls.

Even back them Kuwabara had his own honor code. "You're a butthead for calling girls buttheads," he said.

Yusuke stood, fists up. "Girls aren't buttheads." Kuwabara visibly relaxed. "Girls are butt holes." His fist only grazed Kazuma's head, as Kuwabara had moved in time.

By some miracle, the teacher hadn't seen or heard. It also helped that Kuwabara's head was so hard, even then, that he hadn't felt it. Keiko took her role as the mediator and nicely pushed

Kuwabara back into his seat. "Stop it!" she said to both of them.  
S

he turned around and stared into Yusuke's pitch-black eyes. "Sit down and stop fighting."

"I don't take orders from girls."

"And I don't listen to snot-nosed boys."

The teacher stepped in, and separated them to opposite corners of the room. For the rest of the year, and the years beyond that, there would be a fight between the two boys iat least/i once a week.

* * *

"Keiko, lemme copy," Yusuke said, looking over her shoulder.

She covered up her review packet. "No. Sit down and I'll help you."

Urameshi made a face and straddled the chair backwards. Keiko put the packet into her bookbag, and looked at his. There were sqibbles, sketches, and anything else other than what he was supposed to be doing. She looked at the first problem of the review packet. It was 2(104-17) 3(4-2).

"Okay. What's the answer of the first parenthesis?"

"Eighty seven. Times two is...One seventy two."

"You can do that in your head?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe there is something there. What's four times two times three?"

"Twenty seven." He used his finger and wrote invisible numbers on the table to get 4176.

"So why did you need to copy? You knew the answers," Keiko said as he worked on the next problem.

"'Cause it's easier to bug you."

* * *

"Keiko, say yes."

"No."

"Say yes."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Urameshi, leave Keiko alone."

"No. Keiko, say yes."

"No."

"Say yes."

Finally Keiko snapped: "I'm not oign to say yes until you tell me why!"

"Be my girlfriend."

Both Kuwabara and Keiko were shocked, but not as much as Yusuke when she smiled and answered with, "Yes."

* * *

"Urameshi, stay after class."

The bell rang. The students left hte room, laughing, thankful that it was the end of the day. Sukamuri-sempi, as the teacher was called, waited until every one had left the room, even thoguht Yusuke, because he had a desk in the front of the room, could see Keiko waiting outside for him.

"Explain this," she said, putting the test on his desk. It had an 80 on it, the highest grade he had ever gotten in that class.

"I studied." Yusuke said, putting his arms over his chest.

"With who?"

"Keiko."

Sukamuri-sempi followed his gaze out the door, then went out and aksed Keiko, who confirmed it. He had gone over to her house almost every other day for an hour or so to study, knowing that he had to pass this class for the seventh grade or be held back.

She came back in. "I still want you to retake the test."

"Listen, lady. I **took** the stupid test once, and I got a good grade on it. You even said you created the test the previous peroid, and the fact that you _watched_ me as I took the fucking test, and you know that I DIDN'T CHEAT!" He stood up, knocking over the desk. Yusuke stormed out, ignoring both Sukamuri-sempi, and then Keiko, yelling at him to stop.

He stopped ignoring Keiko as a book cracked him in the back of his head.

"Yusuke, stop." He did. "What happened in there?"

"That...that bitch said I cheated."

"But you didn't this time."

"No."

Keiko reached out and cracked him in the back of the head. "Teaches you something, dosen't it?"

"Yeah. She's a bitch." Yusuke ducked another smack.

"Urameshi!"

* * *

"Ouch! Keiko, lay off that stuff!"

"Stop getting into fights and I wouldn't have to use iodine!" Keiko smacked him in the back of his head as he tried to get out of her grip. It stopped him from moving, but that was only because she had hit him in a newly formed bruise on the back of his head.

After the stars cleared he swore as she wrapped up his knuckles so they wouldn't split open again.

"Stop squirming, Yusuke!"

"Then let me heal on my own!"

"Too late. You already got blood all over my house, and now you have to suffer!" She put iodine on a rag and put it up to his eye, which was also cut and bleeding.

"Shit!" he yelled.

"Yusuke! Watch your mouth!"

"Don't gotta! Let me go, you pain in the ass!"

Yet again she cracked him in the head. This time he blacked out, but that was only because she punched the same place as before. He lept into the black gratefully, thankful he didn't have to suffer at the hands of his girlfriend anymore.

* * *

They were sitting under a tree, side by side. Her hand was linked through his. It was one of the rare days that Genkai had let him out of training early -- he would have to thank Kurama and Hiei for wanting to train with her sometime later...when he felt like getting up agian...

He was trying not to doze off; Genkai had pushed a whole days worth of training into four hours.

"Close your eyes, Yusuke," Keiko said.

He did. He felt her move closer to him, he could smell her shampoo -- flowers, always flowers -- then her lips on his.

It was too short, but ever so sweet. Keiko pulled back away from him, and watched as he opened his eyes, slightly dazed. His hand came up and laid itself on her neck, pulling her back to him.

Oh, how freely given kisses could be so...simple, and yet complex...

* * *

A door slammed open.

"KOENMA!"

The toddler put his papers off to the side, and took a deep breath. This wasn't a conversation he had been looking forward to, at _all._

"BRING HER BACK!" Yusuke yelled, coming into view, red-eyed, hair mussed, frayed at the edges. He looked like he had came the moment he had heard the news.

"I can't do that, Urameshi, and you know that."

"You can do that. I came back. Bring her the fuck back!" The anger and desperation rolled off of him in waves.

"You were a special case. She had been planned --"

"You fucking knew? You knew and you didn't tell me?"

"If I had told her, you would have told her, no?"

A long pause before Yusuke took a black box out of his pocket and chucked it at Koenma, missing him by mere centimeters, just like he had intended it to. Yusuke turned around and stormed out.

Koenma opened the box, and found a diamond ring. Engraved in it was, "Urameshi Yusuke and Yukimura Keiko forever," just in her size.

* * *

Kurama stood up and walked behind Yusuke. He could see the path a lone tear had taken down the raven-hair's cheek.

"You were given a second chance at life. Don't screw it up again," Kurama said, pressing a ring into Yusuke's hand.

The kitsune turned around, going back the way he came.

Yusuke fingered the engravings on the ring, looking out the window.


	2. Home

((Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, and I am not making money off of this story.))

Kurama walked towards Genkai's dojo, still in his outfit from when he went to go talk to Yusuke. He found Genkai staring out at the ocean, Puu next to her devouring his way through a box of crackers, and stood next to her.

"What did you tell him?"

"Enough."

Genkai snorted, causing the spirit beast to look up at her with concern, but crackers overruled his concern when she didn't do anything else.

Kurama stayed silent, staring out into the nothingness, sensing the person in question's presence getting slightly stronger as time went by.

"The demon king's back in Japan," she said, with a sigh.

------------

_Home._

Yusuke undid the locks that led into his and his mother's apartment, and sighed. It looked down-right dirty- pizza boxes, takeout boxes, t.v. dinners, pretty much anything that had a box and could be eaten was thrown around the place, strewn out on the floor, as well as cigarette boxes, cartons, empty liquor bottles.

After a quick check around, he found that his mom wasn't home. No big surprise there. He started to pick up some of the mess, piling up empty boxes on the kitchen table for him to take out later, but that ended when he found the half-pack of cigarettes. Yusuke quickly lit one up, making his way to his bedroom, where he dug out a clean outfit, and let the water warm up as he glorified himself in the smoke.

Yusuke spent nearly an hour in the shower, he changed into a new pair of under-drawers and jeans, along with a clean blue shirt.

He opened up the bathroom door as the front door opened up. His mom, in a half-way decent looking pair of black pants and blouse, looked at him for a moment before throwing her purse at him, nearly losing her balance, as the door closed behind her. "Gud-fer-nuthin' son." She got even madder when the purse fell short.

"Blue button said yous gonna be gun fer weeks, one munth at most. Yous gun fer almost year!" Atsuko yelled at him, throwing the empty boxes at him.

Blue button? Oh. "Botan came here?"

"Yeash, after that gurls fun-er-al. Said yous went aways to...dun 'emember none. Buts that doesn't mean you can'ts come by!" More boxes in the general direction of Yusuke, but the anger had been lost.

"I'm sorry mom. I'm here now," he said as she collapsed in the kitchen chair.

"I was _worried_ about you," Atsuko said as she tipped forward. He moved from the bathroom frame, and caught her before she hit the floor. He picked her up and put her on the couch. As he turned to find a blanket to throw over her, she grabbed his pant leg.

"Don't leave me 'gain."

"I won't, mom."

"Prom'se?"

"I promise."

Her fingers went lax as she fell asleep.

Yusuke had started to clean again - even when he lived at that abandonded building, it hadn't gotten this bad - when he heard persistant knocking on his bedroom window. He went to the back of the apartment, and opened up the window. Botan flew in, grinning from ear to ear.

"Genkai wants to see you."

"I'm only back an hour and already that _oban_ wants to see me?"

"Yup. Now lets go- I got work to do."

"In a moment." He rummaged around in his dresser, and found a silver chain necklace, which he hung the ring from, then around his neck. Botan, in the background, was humming a marching tune, impatient.

Yusuke rolled his eyes and got on the back of the oar, resuming his death-grip. Botan kicked off, and flew through the window, speeding towards the dojo.

"Everyone's missed you."

"Uh-huh."

((-fin-))


	3. Puu!

((Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, and I am not making money off of this story. Enjoy!)) ((Strong language in this one, so I apologize for it now.))

Yusuke had all but blantly ignored Botans' chatter on the oar ride towards the dojo. She blabbered on about different things- she had never seemed this annoying before...before.

A blue blob in the sky made it's way towards the oar, flying awkwardly.

"Puu!" Both the spirit beast and the spirit king yelled. Yusuke jumped off of the oar, collading with each other midair. Botan and the oar flew off in a different direction. They fell to the ground, Yusuke landing easily on the ground even though she had been soaring nearly ten floors up.

"Pu-uu?"

"Yes, I'm back."

"PUU!"

Botan flew back and spotted them. "Come on! Genkai wants to see you NOW!"

Both males rolled their eyes. Yusukle got back on the back of the oar, one arm around Puu, the othe one gripping the oar. Botan soared, covering the last quarter mile in less than a single second.

Botan touched down on the ground just long enough for him to jump off -- Genkai came down the dojo steps, anger clearly showing when she spotted the raven-haired teen.

Her voice carried almost five miles away, to where Kurama was dozing in the treetops.

"Every fckin' day Puu was DRUNK! Every fckin' morning he suffered a HANGOVER! You ran off to heaven-knows-where, leaving Puu behind, not telling anyone where they hell you were going, or when you were coming back! You're the demon king for shit's sake, and you decide to run off and leave your duties behind!" Genkai's face was nearly purple in anger, and she looked like she wanted to decapitate him. She got closer and closer to him, getting more and more annoyed at the fact that he kept stepping back from her, making sure that no less than five feet seperated them, even though they both know she could close it if she really wanted to. "WELL?"

"I missed you too, oban."

Her features softened slightly before she lunged towards him. Yusuke tossed Puu up in the air as she tackled him to the ground. Puu flew up to the tree tops. Yusuke was up and out of her grip in milliseconds. What she didn't know, but could easily connect to, was the fact that he had gotten into his fair share of fights when he was out, sober or drunk, and had won every single one of them.

"You're getting slow."

"Suck off."

"What did I tell you, Puu? She still loves me." Yusuke said, grinning.

"Do not, you pain-in-the-ass."

"Do too. Why did you tell Botan to bring me here if you didn't?" Yusuke side-stepped her as she lunged at him again, but she didn't send a blast of spirit power at him. Not yet, anyway.

"Because you haven't trained in over a year, and there's another tournament coming up next week." Genkai said, twisting her foot around, connecting with his leg, causing him to fall forward. Yusuke easily did a front flip, twisting around to stare at her.

"Like I need to train? You can't even get me, you hag."

Genkai smirked, and sent a huge ball of spirit energy at him; it was invisible to even his eyes. Yusuke dug his sneakers into the ground, causing a groove that was nearly fifty feet long.

She walked the fifty feet as he struggled to breathe. "You were saying?"

"Oban."

"Don't you know it."

-fin-

((oban bitchy old hag.))

((Two more chapters! Please review!)) 


	4. Friends

((I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, nor am I making money off of this story. Enjoy!))

"Damn oban," Yusuke muttered to himself as he walked away from the dojo. His chest still hurt from when Genkai had blasted him with that stupid blast of spirit power, but the pain had subsided. It didn't matter, any how -- someone was going to hurt worse when he found him.

The city hadn't changed that much since he had left and that seemed to hurt more than anything else right now. A pacifier sucking pain in the ass had taken the love of his life away from him, and now he had to face the world pretty much alone.

Urameshi walked around the town, noticing the small changes that had happened. A store had been torn down to make a new movie theater; one of the children's parks he and Keiko would sit and talk in had been re-vamped into a water park, which was currently crawling with children.

_Why did things have to change_? Yusuke thought to himself as he randomly walked around.

About a half an hour later, Yusuke realized that he hadn't been wandering around aimlessly. Instead, he was walking towards Kuwabara's house -- more importantly, the small park just past it. Throwing out his ki, he found Kuwabara and Yukina at the park, but he quickly pulled it back after he felt Kuwabara's recognition of it.

Covering the last few blocks in under a second, he found Kuwabara's back to his, sitting on a bench with the korrime. Smiling to himself, Yusuke ran up behind his orange haired friend and clocked him in the back of the head.

"Oh, Yusuke-chan! You're okay!" Yukina said, jumping up to hug him. He accepted the hug with a smile as she started to ramble on about what had happened over the year he had been gone.

Finally, after she paused to take a breath, he turned to Kuwabara. "Well?"

"Well what?" Kazuma asked, rubbing the back of his head.

Yusuke looked at him for a moment before he charged at his best friend. No spirit power was behind any of the punches that he administered to his friend, nor was there any power behind Kuwabara's punches, the few that he was able to get in.

Pinning Kuwabara underneath him, Yusuke waited until he stopped struggling before talking. "Why is it that Kurama came and not you?"

Kuwabara's face lost color. "Kurama and I talked about a week ago. He figured I'd say something stupid, so he went to talk to you."

Yusuke could see the smarts in that. It had worked – getting him to come back like this – hadn't it?

He got off of Kuwabara, holding a hand out, which Kuwabara took, standing up.

Kuwabara pulled Yusuke into a hug, nearly toppling him over. "Welcome home."

As soon as the short hug was over, Yukina came over to her boyfriend, gushing about his bruises. "Oh, Kuwabara, you're hurt!"

Yusuke laughed as Kuwabara started to complain. "Only here and here, and I think I bruised something here…"

"I'll see you guy's later, okay?" Yusuke said.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

--------

Feeling the ki of the person he was looking for, Yusuke started to wander around again.

There was a small pain in his chest still, and it wasn't from Genkai. The pain was from knowing that Keiko wasn't ever going to be able to walk with him….talk with him….call him a complete idiot when he made a mistake…

That was why he had run. It hurt too much to think about what they did growing up – everything held too many memories. He wanted to forget, to have never known her, but then he wouldn't be alive, either.

Before he knew it, he was standing in front of Kurama's house. He knocked.

Smiling, Kurama opened the door. "Hello."

"Hello." There was a pause. "I wanted to tell you….I mean…"

Kurama patiently waited.

Yusuke took a deep breath. "Thank you. For everything. Talking to Kuwabara, finding me…." He trailed off, not sure on what to otherwise say.

"No thanks needed. You were ready to come back – otherwise you would've ignored me." Kurama smiled again.

-fin-


End file.
